International donors yesterday (17 November) pledged $2.2 billion (€2 billion) in aid for strife-torn Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest countries, officials said. “The positive response you have given … will galvanise our efforts and make sure our recovery plans bear fruit,” Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera said after a donors’ conference in Brussels. The pledges topped the $1.6 billion Touadera had wanted over three years to kick-start the devastated economy but were short of the $3.0 billion targeted for the five-year programme.

Major NGOs gave a guarded welcome today (22 November) to a major once-in-a-decade, overhaul of the EU’s thinking on development. The Commission – fronted in a Strasbourg press conference, in a sign of the weight it gives the issue, by foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans and Development Commissioner Neven Mimica – unveiled a trilogy of papers setting out the future of development and aid spending between now and 2030.

Yesterday, the European Commission launched a policy package that maps EU current actions and commitments to achieve the UN 2030 Agenda and lays down the future direction for the EU development cooperation and relations with Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The Fair Trade movement welcomes the recognition by the EU of the “strong contribution” of Fair Trade to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and looks forward to work with the EC to upgrade the EU answer to the global goals. Yesterday, the European Commission announced its new strategic approach for achieving sustainable development in the EU and globally.

The Cotonou Agreement which governs relations between the European Union and 78 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) will expire in February 2020. How could the relationship evolve? In the following interview, Stefano Manservisi, Director-General of DEVCO (the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development) discusses the shared interests which will guide cooperation and outlines a new basis for partnership founded on regional pillars. Capacity4dev (C4D): The current partnership agreement with the countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific expires in February 2020.

The Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States on the one hand and, on the other hand, the European Union and its Member States, signed in Cotonou on June 2000 is due to expire in February 2020. Negotiations between the parties in order to examine provisions to govern relations subsequently have to start no later than August 2018.